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On 12 May 2016, the Immigration Act 2016 (the Act) came into force in the UK .The Act builds upon legislation introduced in 2014 which strengthened punishments for employers who employ illegal workers. This included doubling the maximum civil penalty from £10,000 to £20,000 per illegal worker employed. In the financial year 2014/2015, Immigration Enforcement issued 1,974 civil penalties to businesses employing illegal workers.

Three of the Act’s main provisions came into force on 12 July 2016. These are:

Illegal working will be made a criminal offence in its own right so that the individual employee will be subject to potential criminal prosecution for illegal working i.e. working at a time when they know they do not have permission to work in the UK and/or they have reasonable cause to believe that they are disqualified from doing so because of their immigration status. An individual convicted of this offence will be subject to imprisonment of 51 weeks or a fine (unlimited) or both and may also be subject to a confiscation order of wages as the proceeds of crime.

The existing criminal offence of ‘knowingly employing’ an illegal worker will be extended so that if an employer has ‘reasonable cause’ to believe that an employee is disqualified from working because of their immigration status and employs them, the employer will be committing a criminal offence. The maximum term of imprisonment for conviction of this offence will increase from 2 years to 5 years.

In addition, due to the increase in organised criminal activity engaging in labour market exploitation, primarily targeting migrant workers, the Government will be creating a new Director of Labour Market Enforcement to seek to oversee compliance in the labour market.

These will make it increasingly difficult for employers to turn ‘a blind eye’ to their responsibilities to prevent illegal working.

If you have any concerns or questions on the above, Belvoir HR can provide further information. Contact us today and we will be pleased to assist.

There is a lot of talk about “illegals” in the UK at the moment. You may not be aware that the maximum civil penalty for employing illegal workers as a result of careless recruitment and employment practices is £20,000 per illegal worker. So it is essential that you conduct Right to Work checks on all new employees before they start working for you – even if they claim to be British. Indeed, being selective in your checks can, of itself, amount to race discrimination.

If you do conduct the prescribed Right to Work checks, you’ll have a statutory defence to mitigate payment of the penalty. However, if you fail to conduct the checks, whether the maximum penalty will be applied will depend on if you reported the suspected illegal worker(s) to the Home Office, and your active co-operation with their investigation.

A three-step processThere are three steps you need to go through to carry out a Right to Work check:

Ask for acceptable original documents showing a Right to Work in the UK – the “List A” and” List B” documents. Documents provided from “List A” establish that the person has a permanent entitlement to live and work in the UK and the reason is valid for the full time of their employment. “List B” contains the range of documents which may be accepted for checking purposes for an individual who has a temporary right to work in the UK. With “List B” documents, you will only establish a time-limited statutory defence and you will be required to carry out a follow-up Right to Work check.

Check the validity of the documents – you must satisfy yourself that the documents are genuine, that the person presenting them is the rightful holder, and that they are allowed to do the type of work you are offering.

Take a clear colour copy of the documents in a format which cannot be altered.

AssistanceIf you have any concerns or questions on the above, Belvoir HR can provide further information, including a checklist for you to use if you simply wish to ensure you are doing things correctly. Contact us today and we will be pleased to assist.